Hello! Right now you’re reading “The Creator Confidential”, a blog where famous YouTubers share their stories and tips they have for growing a YouTube channel. Over the past week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Medley, and here is the finished result. Enjoy!
Laura Medley’s channel has over 161,000 subscribers and 8.5 million views! She posts videos ranging from motivational videos to study videos to vlogs. At only 18 years old, she hosts a podcast called “The Creative Key” and recently started a new project called “The Noun Project Collective”. On her YouTube channel, her most popular video has over 2.1 million views! This is her story, as well as Laura’s tips for small creators.
What inspired you to create your channel?
I've always been incredibly creative growing up so when I saw that YouTube was a possibility, I instantly wanted to get involved. When I initially started my channel, my main inspiration was definitely creators such as Casey Neistat, who was creating content that was more story-driven than the other YouTubers I was watching. At the time, I didn't really know how to do that form of content and so I started my channel creating lifestyle-based content like other girls my age. YouTube acted as (and still does act as) a creative outlet for me so when I began, my initial goals were just to experiment with my creativity and my style and also to just help as many people as I could. YouTube got me through some difficult times while I was at school and I wanted to pass on the favour.
Do you think your family or background/where you grew up influenced your content? Can you talk about how your parents affected your YouTube channel?
Yes 100%. I think different environments often affect us, even when we don't realise that they do! I have been extremely lucky to be brought up by supportive parents and have an older sibling who is also in the creative industry like me. Obviously, initially, my parents were apprehensive about me starting a channel but because they'd seen my older brother do various creative projects, I think they were more open to the idea. My parents have never been super strict with what I post online as I've always been quite a sensible person in terms of what gets put online and what stays personal and I think that has really helped me explore my creativity without restrictions.
You talked about how you loved to edit during one of your videos and also about freelance editing. Have you made some progress in making a career for yourself in that path? Also, about how long does it take to edit one of your videos?
Yes! I absolutely love editing. It's one of my favourite parts of YouTube! With freelance work, I've edited a couple of videos but I've found that there are other directions I'm more interested in, such as animation and lyric videos! I have done a couple of lyric videos for various artists and it's been great moving my skills from one area to another. With my videos, editing usually takes a few days! I am very particular with how I film and edit my main channel content so the editing process takes a long time - I'd say roughly 15 hours per video.
Top 3 tips you would give to small YouTubers trying to start a successful YouTube channel?
One thing I always say is that people love what other people are passionate about. Don't be scared to make the content you enjoy watching and also don't expect too much of yourself. We all have to start somewhere and you can't progress without starting.
Secondly, I'd say not to focus on the views or the money. Nowadays, with YouTube, I think smaller creators focus a lot on being able to make money from their videos and not so much on their content/whether creating is making them happy. Focus on what's important - doing what you love.
Finally, I'd say to be yourself. For a long time, I thought I had to be really outgoing (which is not a part of my character at all) and it was only when I started to be myself that my channel began to grow. It's amazing to be unique so don't try to copy others!
A lot of times YouTubers will have another side hustle/business. For you, it was your podcast "The Creative Key"! Can you talk about your motivation for starting it and the process you went through to create your first episode?
Yes! I really have a passion for creativity and the podcast really felt like an amazing next step for me. I never thought I'd be able to do a podcast due to my anxiety disorder, however as I have progressed in the recent years, my speech has improved and so the podcast to me really feels like a celebration. A celebration of achieving what I wanted to with my mental health, but also being able to now use my voice for something really important. When creating the first episode, I was really indecisive as to how to begin. I settled on the topic of self-love. This is something I've struggled with and I know a lot of my friends have. I've gained a lot of knowledge over the past year and so it only felt right to share this with my listeners from the get-go.
What do you think was the biggest mistake you made in starting your channel?
Definitely choosing a niche. I absolutely loved creating study content but as a creative, it was incredibly limiting to me. I much prefer the content I am creating now and if I could go back, I would just tell myself to not care what others thought. Just to create what I'm passionate about and not give myself any limits.
How do you find new opportunities with brands? What is one of the best opportunities you've gotten from your YouTube channel?
I don't really reach out to brands very often. Most of the time, they will email me and we'll arrange a collaboration from that. I would say my best opportunities have come from freelance work rather than sponsorships as I am very selective with what I choose to promote on my channel!
What is your experience with hate (either online in the form of comments or from people in your life at school) and how do you deal with it?
To be honest, I definitely had a lot of issues at school with people bullying and creating rumours about me due to my YouTube channel but looking back, I sort of just took it on the chin and continued with my life. It definitely really affected my confidence for a year or so but then I decided to stop caring what those people thought about me and start focusing on who I wanted to become. This is something I really cover in detail on that podcast episode. In terms of online hate, it hasn't been too bad. It definitely doesn't affect me as much anymore as it did to begin with. Strangers hating on your outfit or your appearance will never not be a little weird haha but I've definitely learned to cope with it and just ignore it the best I can!
Thanks for reading! A huge thanks to Laura for taking the time to answer all the questions. Here are the links to all her socials:
Instagram: @laurmedley https://www.instagram.com/laurmedley/?hl=en
Instagram (The Noun Project Collective): @nounprojectcollective https://www.instagram.com/nounprojectcollective/?hl=en
Twitter: @laurmedley1 https://twitter.com/laurmedley1
YouTube: Laura Medley https://www.youtube.com/c/LaurMedley/videos
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